Rep. Ron Paul has surprised pundits and his rivals with his fundraising.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Presidential campaigns and supporters use all sorts of gimmicks to try and raise money, such as celebrating birthdays, winning a chance to dine with a candidate and marking November 5 as an anniversary.

Huh? November 5?

Supporters of Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential bid are using this date to help boost the Texas Republican’s campaign coffers, in what is being described as a massive grassroots on-line fundraising drive. The significance? Well, in English history a gentleman by the name of Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Houses of Parliament, which was the subject of the recent film “V for Vendetta.”

One of the leaders behind the Paul fundraising drive said the message is not violent, but rather a fundraising idea that spread virally on-line. Paul’s presidential campaign said the idea did not come from the Texas congressman, but they are promoting the progress of this fundraising drive. As of late Monday afternoon, the Paul campaign claims it raised over $2.7 million, a figure that cannot be independently confirmed until Federal Election Commission reports are filed at the end of the year.

Paul, who is registering in the low single digits in most polls, raised $5 million in the third quarter fundraising period.

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Many who posted comments are probably too young to remember the 1964 election between Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Goldwater's strategy depended on the "missing voter" who was so disenchanted with politics that he stayed home from the polls. Goldwater's planned to bring those hidden voters, who had long yearned for a "true" conservative candidate, to the polls.

Like Goldwater, Paul and his supporters are intelligent and articulate but out of step with most Americans. The Paul candidacy resembles Nader's in that way. And, like Nader, if Paul was elected he could not govern. The Congress that is going to assemble in Washington would spend four years debating, discussing, and studying (but not passing) his proposals.

His beliefs pretty much line up with standard Libertarian doctrine. He proposes a very weak federal government with little taxing power and no real domestic mission. It would protect the borders and maintain a small military. Its foreign policy would be non-interventionist: no humanitarian intervention in places like Darfur; no preemptive wars like Iraq; no participation in the UN, NATO, NAFTA and other international organizations. The economy should be governed by the free market completely. States would handle air, water, and ground pollution. A tight money supply would reduce personal debt by making lenders less willing to lend (that is gonna fly). He is pro-gun, anti-immigration, pro-life, anti-regulation, anti-public education, pro-voucher, pro-home schooling, opposed to governmental health programs, and you can surely fill in the blanks. It is standard, non-pasteurized, Grade-A Libertarianism. Details can be found on his web site at http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/ .

The only problem in Ron Paul's world is government. The only solution in his world is the free market. Libertarian candidates have been running on this platform for as long as I have been alive.

I see four big problems with Libertarianism.

1. It has never been implemented anywhere ever. The belief that a modern society could reconstruct itself along Libertarian lines has never been tested. History's best example of Libertarianism in action, I guess, would be the "Gilded Age" between the Civil War and WWI, when large corporations essentially ruled the country. Wages were low, benefits were non-existent, the 12 hour workday was the norm, child labor was commonplace, education was not available to many, and snake oil salesmen peddled poison in the guise of medicine.

2. As a Libertarian administration reduced governmental powers, corporate power would grow. Corporations have no interest in a free market. At every opportunity, they seek to control the market by bribing governmental officials, influencing elections, fixing prices, and defrauding customers. State and local governments are much easier to buy and control - as we all know - and corporations will seek to buy and control them even more energetically than they do now. Corporations, unrestrained by federal government oversight, will use their unrestrained power to do one thing: give us less and charge us more. Paul would say that the free market would allow consumers to purchase from corporations they like, thus punishing corporations they don't like. For example, if you don't like Exxon, you can buy from Chevron; if you don't like T-Mobile, you can go to AT&T; and if you don't like Blackwater, you can choose Halliburton. Talk about free choice!

3. Modern global corporations did not exist in previous generations. The men who run them would be happy to can the homeless and sell them as Vienna sausage if they could make a nickel from it. They would advertise the product as "Health Weenies – Tastes Good and So Good for You!" Hustlers, hucksters, con-artists, and fraud-merchants populate board rooms as well as county jail cells. The corporation is king of the economy, and it has absolutely no respect for its customers. Corporations see customers much like ranchers see their herds. Without the counterbalancing power of government to restrain them, they can make much more money dishonestly than honestly.

4. Small businesses and family farms would cease to exist. They would be eaten alive by the predatory marketing practices of giant corporations.

The net effect of Libertarianism would be to provide a short period of political realignment before the corporate state (a nation in which corporations are the only real citizens) came into existence.

The Ron Paul supporters who see his views as fresh and exciting should read the history of the latter 19th century. Fortunately, they can read due to government mandated public education.

Please give Ron Paul FAIR coverage. The influx of cash Made on Novemeber the 5th 2007 was made because the main stream media tries to blackout Ron Paul or portray him as a kook. This virtual money bomb is to show YOU the main stream media that he is a real candidate and he supporters are the real deal. Please produce fair coverage of his ideas because they are the issues Americans care about.

Small govt is a code term for stripping away any protection the average guy still has against the powerful industy,powerful lobbies and powerful foreign governments (oh did I mention the the AMA – the most powerful union in the U.S)

Mr. Paul is just another Rich Dr. who doesn't like paying his fair share of taxes and wants to live in the style of the 19th century when our country was isolated by virtue of two big oceans to our East and West.

Why does CNN call this a fundraising 'shocker'? Dr. Paul raising $3+ million in one day is what is to be expected. His support is widespread because his ideals and morals are sound. He is going to win the election. Don't be shocked when it happens in November 2008.

I was thinking today about the polls... and do pollsters call only people with landlines? Who has landlines today? Even my NINETY year old grandfather-in-law doesn't have a landline any more– he has a cell phone only.

May God bless Mr. Paul and his family. It is my hope that before anyone casts their vote that they look into what Mr. Paul is offering to see for themselves his solutions to most of all of our ills(pun intended). Business as usual is not getting the job done. It is time for a rEVOLution.

"The Champion of the Constitution" No matter what kind of light you shed on this man. He is the only man that wants to restore America back to its constitution, he is for "the right to bear arms" He is for less government, no Patriot act" He is for privacy and against Incentives that draw in and cater to illegal aliens, we have spent trillions $$ on incentives alone and NOW NY GOV wants to give illegals a drivers license. Ron Paul has never voted for a tax increase, unbalanced budget, was a surgeon for the air force & air nat'l guard, He is also a Dr who has delivered 4000 babies. He's for limited Government; too much Gov is dangerous for instance the Dept of Education, took God out and opened non english schools Ron Paul believes America can do w/o the DOE as the teachers need to answer to the PARENT not some dept, funnel the extra income down to the teacher salary, better care for Veterans, more State control less federal laws,,
Ron Paul is FOR Americas Sovereignty no lost treaty that allows other countries have dominion over certain potions of the Air and Waters and "We can be TAXED by other countries. The NAU is where the borders between America & Mexico nad between America & Canada are erased. Ron Paul says ::ENOUGH:: the UN wants to be head over EU & NAU isnt that a one world government? Ron Paul says NO!
Ron Paul Revolution Legalize the Constitution!
SHAME TO YOU CNN FOR NOT DELIVERING THE TRUTH!

I have issue with the comparison of the November 5th donations for Ron Paul to the Guy Fawkes & the Gunpowder Plot. This network is run in the United States of America and they are referencing an infamous day in British history that has no bearing.

I fear they are aiming to trick the audience.

If this network had any real Patriots left they would have compared November 5th as the day Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women registered, and voted in the presidential election of 1872. Guess whom they voted for… Ulysses S Grant

That would be good reporting, but I fear they have lost the ability through possibly no fault of their own

Removing "gimmicks" and replace with "events".
Explain why Guy Fawkes was attempting to assassinate James I by blowing up Parliament.
Clarify statistic by mentioning "at least $2.7 million" on front page Ticker.
Change "subject of the recent film" to "inspiration for the recent film".

Otherwise, thanks for the nice piece about Dr. Paul and his supporters. This was an extraordinarily successful fundraising push that rightfully deserves reporting.

$3,360,052 as of 9:15PM EST (21 hours and 15 minutes into what they're calling the "money bomb").

This, according to something I read earlier today but can't find again, breaks the record for the largest one-day campaign donation total ever recorded. (Anyone out there have that link?)

People, this is serious. It's been a while since Ron Paul could be easily ignored, but now he can't be ignored at all. There's an enormous number of people out there who are absolutely fed up with both the Republicans and the Democrats and more and more of those people are concluding that Dr Paul is an alternative who can appeal to a very broad spectrum of the population.

Until a few months ago, the few news articles that referred to Paul at all did so in terms implying that he had no chance of even winning the Republican nomination, let alone the election. More recently, the articles more and more conceded, sometimes reluctantly, that his chances had risen from zero to merely poor. Even more recently, they've started to concede that, as Dr Paul himself put it on the Jay Leno show, "there's probably a risk I could win."